[Nfbmt] I'm Back

Fri Jan 29 16:55:49 UTC 2016

Oh Rik, thanks for reminding me that there are a few perks to getting older.
One of them is to know how to make lemon icies out of a little bit (or a lot)
of snow.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  It's all small stuff.  It's a matter
of attitude.

I remember reading an article in a parents' magazine once where somebody
brought their little kids to a meeting at someone's house, and I don't
remember whether it was cookie crumbs or something got on the floor.  One
mother said, "Where's my broom?"  the other said, "Where's my camera?"  I've
never forgotten that.

Everybody in the news is getting so uptight about how to protect ourselves
from this or that boogie man, and saying if you see something, say something.
People in big cities and sometimes in small towns don't see something or say
something anymore because they don't have neighbors like the Mayberry
neighbors that some of us used to have, where you share each other's lives,
help each other out, solve problems over the back fence.  Many kids still had
their original parents with them.  Since both parents often didn't have to
work, or at least not at the same time, somebody was usually home.  We all
raised each other's kids, and we probably knew or thought we knew or wished
we knew too much about each other's business.  I don't think Mayberry was all
a myth.  We have lived eight years in our present house, and we know one
neighbor slightly.  Joy

----Original Message-----
From: Nfbmt [mailto:nfbmt-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rik James via
Nfbmt
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 9:38 AM
To: NFB of Montana Discussion List
Cc: Rik James
Subject: Re: [Nfbmt] I'm Back

Welcome back to Big Sky Country, Joy.
Where a few feet of snow is just not what it is for the cramped city folks
for sure.
When they were talking so much on the news, it was interesting to reflect on
years ago, and what life was like with a big storm.
Life just stopped, and we played hard in the snow. And lived off what we had
stocked away in the pantry.

As a kid in Ohio in the late 1950s and 1960s, I remember some real big
storms. Yes, the roads were closed, schools were closed. But it was not
panic. It was weather.

Our neighbors did things together. Helped each other getting a roadway
cleared. Fixed the old fuel oil furnace that went kah flooey. And those
frozen pipes? Yikes.
Second thought, maybe it was kind of rough. But I can remember the fun parts.
And not all this panic talk on the radio and TV.

And from the early 1970s to the present in Montana, same deal.

But little by little, expectations have changed.
As a society we have evolved a consciousness that wants to maintain an
illusion of control, and to be able to do and go where we want regardless of
inclement circumstances.

The peaceful feeling of a good hard winter freeze, and the winter blanket of
snow.
Why, it's a wonder to behold. Why can't we just, just you know, just chill?

One winter, I think it was 1993 in February. In Montana, and here in Bozeman,
there was this big storm that came through. Temperatures just plunged. With a
50 mph North by Northeast wind. From forty above to 20 below sort of deal. I
remember being out walking in town around 10 in the morning. By 1:00 it was
bitter cold. Peeled big chunks off paint right off of our house. And no
primer or paint would stick on it for years.

Anyhow. Talk about your panic.
We had some sort of friends here on a sky vacation.
It was the early days of having that thing called the Weather Channel on
cable tv.
Their car's fuel line froze up. So they got all panicked and crazy. The
described to their friends they felt like hostages in our house. They were
addicted to that weather channel. I think it was like 4-5 days that cold snap
lasted.

Well, we have never had them back.
I might have gently suggested they might want to look at some of those
fancier places nearer the ski slopes. Where they could have the Weather
Channel on all night in their room if they wanted!

Ha ha. Good stories.

How does your nose run in a snow drift?
Up?  Down? Sideways? Depends on which way you landed, I reckon.
Where does this road go?  It don't go nowhere, it stays right where it always
has been.

I have been getting lost a bit in Bozeman, trying to figure out where the
heck I am.
Which corner is this one?  The sounds are a bit different, too.  Trying not
to hit a panic button. Trying not to break my fool hip on this ice!

GPS?
What does that stand for again?
Getting Pretty Strange?

Cheers, Joy. Thanks for going that extra mile.
We'll fuel up and help turn our attention to our legislative agenda here
presently.
Bill numbers. Blurbs to spout about the why and how. And the urgency of now.

Rik

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